Good mornings

Recently I've been training for a CPAT (Fire Fighter physical fitness test) so I've been trying to tear up my legs for the past couple of months in the gym.

As of a few weeks ago I passed my CPAT, but I figured I should keep building my legs up pretty good. In the past legs were something I stayed away from since I was in the Army and they always had to be ready for a 12 mile road march or a 10 mile run. Big, bulky legs aren't exactly good for either of those. Well, I figured now that I don't have to worry about that I should keep training my legs up. I'd been doing a variety of different exercises from squats, stiff legged dead lifts, to deep squats, to hack squats, to lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, etc. etc.

Yesterday, I decided to change it up and do some good mornings. If you don't have them as part of your leg workout rotation, I suggest you add it. They provide some serious hamstring isolation and my legs haven't been this sore in quite a while. Anybody else a big fan of of these or even anti- Good mornings? I don't think I have to explain the benefits MMA wise of strong hamstring muscles.

Oh they definitely work your hams too. Nearly every muscle group on the backside of your body gets worked to some extent. Its a good exercize if your form is right. Go light if you've never done them and focus on form. Don't want to get injured.

richieb19

3/18/08 4:19:48PM

Posted by The_Notorious_ZIG

Oh they definitely work your hams too. Nearly every muscle group on the backside of your body gets worked to some extent. Its a good exercize if your form is right. Go light if you've never done them and focus on form. Don't want to get injured.

Thanks for the correction... and yes, be very careful with this workout, easy to injure yourself.

richieb19

3/18/08 4:24:10PM

I used to do hyperextensions with 45lbs weight with high reps. Soon as I let go of the weight my body springs back into a straight position, lol kinda funny.

seanfu

3/18/08 5:31:41PM

I've never heard of em, thanks for that one it's new. Personally I don't work hams that hard, I don't see much of a benefit for the amount of flexibility lost.

A couple things I do as part of my fighter style workout for legs are- (stamina specific)- dumbell squats, I hit 25 reps pretty nonstop with 45's or something.

Also, a workout that's great for anyone's stamina, I find one of the machines with the foot peddle looking parts. You put the pin in the plates to set the weight. yep, I hit 3 sets of those. Your legs are dead afterward but you don't build a bunch of muscle that only is 50% strength you know.

Svartorm

3/18/08 5:54:45PM

I'm not sure if the test is different by state, but do they have you do the stair climber while wearing your fire gear?

You're better off going with leg endurance excercises like that, than any kind of explosive power excercise, as it won't come into play in the work field. Doing the stair climber with a weight vest or at high tension should work for you, as its functional strength you're building.

Jackelope

3/19/08 1:03:07AM

Posted by Svartorm

I'm not sure if the test is different by state, but do they have you do the stair climber while wearing your fire gear?

You're better off going with leg endurance excercises like that, than any kind of explosive power excercise, as it won't come into play in the work field. Doing the stair climber with a weight vest or at high tension should work for you, as its functional strength you're building.

Yeah, like I said .. I've already passed the CPAT. Here in AZ they do it with a weighted vest, not the full SCBA deck out. The vest weighs the same as firefighter gear, though.

When I was training for the CPAT I was doing the stair stepper a lot, but I didn't really bother much with leg endurance since I had just gotten back from Iraq and walking around with a bunch of weight on my back seemed like the every day norm. A lot of people had difficulty with the stair stepper and I think it's because they were doing things like squats for 10 reps to train. Less competition for me when they failed, though! haha

Jackelope

3/19/08 1:07:20AM

Posted by richieb19

I thought good mornings where basically a lower back workout?

So did I. I studied up on them quite a bit and saw that it was really great for hamstrings, so I decided to give them a try. My lower back is definitely feeling the work, but my hams are feeling it moreso. It's basically all about the form in which you do it. Like others have said, maintain good form and keep the weight light (you don't need much at all, really)

Without having to make another post.. this one is for Seanfu-

I was wondering about the flexibility issues coming with working hams hard. I wouldn't want my hams to be pulling too hard if they've got too much strength in them. I was thinking of adding these good mornings as part of my workout maybe for a total of about 3 months of the year. I just feel like the hams, and really legs in general, get neglected a lot by people. Still, if you could provide more input on loss of flexibility, or even if you could find an article somewhere that'd be awesome and I'd love to read it.